Gel packets used to maintain COVID-19 vaccine temperatures during transport are again amid potentially devastated stings.
As countries demand more supplies, shipping of the Moderna vaccine has reached places outside the temperature range, affecting 4,400 doses in Maine and another 11,900 doses in Michigan earlier this week.
According to Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control (CDC), both distributors – McKesson – and Moderna and federal officials are conducting a full analysis of the implications for the viability of the vaccines.
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“This phenomenon of some doses coming out of the temperature range has occurred not only in Maine, but also in some other states, for example in Michigan,” Shah said Thursday during a virtual briefing.
Shipments come with a temperature monitoring device to detect the temperature during transportation. Shah said the boxes arrived in Maine with a ‘red X’ instead of a ‘green tick’.
McKesson had earlier told Fox News on Monday that he had heard of the issue on Monday, and had fixed the problem under faulty gel packs used to keep the doses cold.
“We have also identified the cause of the problem – some gel packs used to maintain the appropriate temperature during shipment have been found to be too cold – and have taken steps to prevent it from occurring in the future,” reads a email statement from McKesson.
The Moderna vaccine is stable at minus 20 degrees Celsius, but cannot drop to storage temperatures below minus 40 degrees Celsius. Once in the refrigerator, it can last 30 days at 2 degrees Celsius to 8 degrees Celsius. Scales cannot be re-frozen once thawed.
McKesson told the U.S. CDC and Operation Warp Speed that “gel packs were not left to be thawed to the appropriate temperature, but rather were thrown into the boxes,” according to Shah. “The operating hypothesis is therefore now that the temperature exceedance was on the low side, not on the high side,” but until an investigation is completed, officials will not know for sure, he added.
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Replacement doses have already been sent to both countries, but not without any delays in appointments.
None of the vaccines in question have been administered, Shah said, but are rather kept in frozen storage until scientists use the vaccines as safe and effective.
“Being too cold increases the chance that the vaccines delivered to Maine could eventually use those 4,400 doses,” Shah said. “This is because vaccinations of this kind are generally more stable in cold environments.”
Overall, Maine has administered more than 92,000 doses, and more than 17,000 people in the state have already received their second dose.